Of Hello's and Goodbye's
by DancingintheRain9100
Summary: When she would look back years later at the battle that had taken it all she would find that she could only remember this; a terrible fiery monster, a battle that seemed lost before it had even begun, blooming bruises and wicked scratches and then, a broken body sprawled on rain stained pavement.


**A/N: Soulmate AU where the first and last words your soulmate ever says to you appear on your wrist. Yeah, I don't even know what to say about this one, I got carried away with the angst. Whoops. (Don't read if you like happy endings. Seriously leave now. Save yourself.)**

When Marinette was one year old she learned to walk, a bright eyed baby tripping and tumbling from couch to table.

A few months later she she spotted a little bug as red as a drop of blood and she gleefully squealed her first word, "ladybug!"

When Marinette was six years old she lost her first tooth and then the next day her second.

When she was ten she broke her arm. She only cried when the doctor told her she'd need shots.

When she was fourteen, her soul tattoos appeared.

She woke up to two thin lines of words, one for each wrist. When she glimpsed the velvety black ink on her pale skin she almost screamed. She had known about soul tattoos longer than she had been able to talk, she remembered her mother fondly telling her, "the left wrist is for the very first words your soul mate will say to you and the right is for the very last." Yet even after all these years she had never really grasped the fact that _she_ would get them.

She brought her left wrist closer and peered at the fine print written on pale skin.

"Well Hey There"

She sighed, they were the most basic first words possible, she would never know who her soul mate was when she met them. She stilled. Maybe she had already met them. She peered at her right wrist.

"I love you"

She smiled fondly at that but her excitement ebbed a bit as neither of the tattoos gave any clue as to who her soul mate was. With one last puzzled glance at her wrists she got up.

Weeks passed and Marinette intently listened whenever someone greeted her, but soon enough summer ended and school started and all the greetings blurred together. She rarely gave the ink on her wrists a second glance.

When Marinette was fifteen, she met Chat Noir.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When Adrien was six months old he got his first modeling job as the baby in a baby food advertisement.

When he was five he lost his first tooth and began private tutoring.

By the time he was ten he had a line of fans that wrapped around the block.

When he was thirteen his mother disappeared.

When he was fourteen, his soul tattoos appeared.

He woke to two thin lines of words, one for each wrist. When he glimpsed the velvety black ink on his pale skin he sat bolt up in bed. He had a hazy summer warmed memory from long ago when his mother told him about soul tattoos and since that day he had waited eagerly for the inky letters to appear. He looked excitedly at his left wrist.

"Oh, i'm sorry"

He frowned slightly at that, hundreds of people had bumped in to him and uttered that exact apology before walking away never to be seen by him again. He peered at his right wrist.

"Don't leave me"

His frown deepened but determined not to let the strange words put a damper on his excitement he gave one last puzzled glance at his wrists and threw off his covers to get out of bed.

Weeks passed and whenever people bumped into Adrien he nodded and smiled and memorized their face as they apologized, but summer ended and as he began his first year at public school the apologies were too constant to pay any attention to. Soon enough he rarely gave the ink on his wrist a second glance.

When Adrien was fifteen, he met Ladybug.

She came, quite literally, crashing into his life. A blur of red and black and suddenly he found himself upside-down firmly pressed against a blue eyed girl. He studied her curiously for a moment before plastering his best sly cat grin on to his lips.

"Well hey there, nice of you to drop in."

She looked amused as she returned his curious glance.

"Oh im sorry, I didn't do it on purpose."

As they carefully untangled from the string binding them together neither one gave thought to the ink that lay hidden just beneath their suits.

Time passed and as she began to stare longingly at the boy without the mask he fell head over heels for the girl clad in red. As civilians they were both aware of the existence of the others soul tattoos but neither even dared to fathom that perhaps, put together, their wrists told a story of a beginning that had already passed and an ending that had been written in the stars from the very beginning.

Yet, the stars, it seemed, had danced with cruel fate as the ending came far too soon.

When she would look back years later at the battle that had taken it all she would find that she could only remember this; a terrible fiery monster, a battle that seemed lost before it had even begun, blooming bruises and wicked scratches and then, a broken body sprawled on rain stained pavement.

"CHAT!" her scream shattered the air just as the monster shattered her world into a thousand tiny pieces. She watched as her partners body was thrown down as carelessly as a child would throw down a toy.

The fiery monster was suddenly forgotten, the frigid air swirling around her a distant memory, her attention zeroed in on the broken body of the boy in front of her.

She ran to him, kneeling beside him and gently placing his head in her lap. He looked up at her blearily and coughed, blood began to paint his pale pink lips red.

"It's ok, we'll fix this, I'll find help, just hold on Chat, you're going to be okay, this will be o-"

"Ladybug." He cut off her panicked rambling in a hoarse whisper. She stared down at him, tears beginning to stream down her face. She gently stroked his soft hair and leaned down so her forehead rested gently against his.

"You're not allowed to leave me okay, I don't want to do this without you, I _Can't_ do this without you." The last of her words were caught up in a sob and she squeezed her eyes shut as tears gently rolled off her face and onto his.

She sat up suddenly and looked around, "let me go find help, there has to be...there has to be _someone."_ She sobbed desperation crawling into her voice.

She made a move to get up and a warm shaking hand shot out and caught her wrist. She looked down at the searing green eyes that locked on to hers.

"Stay." He whispered.

Her gaze softened, "Mon Minou I have to try."

The grip on her wrist didn't budge and after a moment she let out a broken sigh, "okay."

A soft smile bloomed on his face and he studied her for a moment, "you're so pretty when you cry Bugaboo."

Hot fast tears slid down her face, "Stop it Chat, stop trying to make this better."

He simply smiled wider and gestured her face down to his. She leaned down and he shifted so his lips softly brushed against her ear.

"I've wanted to tell you something for a long time and well," he laughed brokenly, voice beginning to fade, "I guess now would be the time to do it."

He sighed and closed his eyes and then said so quietly that it could have been the breeze speaking , "Ladybug, I love you."

The floodgates opened and whatever had not been broken before shattered inside her. She knew she didn't look like a superhero anymore, she looked like a sobbing mess of broken girl. But she didn't care because that's exactly what she was.

She rested her head once again on his and sobbed until her head ached. With her lips softly brushing through golden locks she whispered, "Please, don't leave me." But it fell to deaf ears as the last sweet breath had already left through red stained lips.

Still, she stayed as the sky began to darken and the frigid air numbed her. Two bodies, but only one cloud of breath that swirled into the darkening sky.

She stayed with her eyes closed and her forehead against his. Her quiet sobs the loudest thing on the eerily silent street.

She saw the bright flash that signaled detransformation even through her closed eyelids. She contmplated just staying like that forever. Until the thretaning sky finally began to drop snow. Until they were buried in pure white, until she was numb and pain did not exist anymore. Finally, she took a deep breath and opened tear blurred eyes. She was met with the words that had last left her mouth in a broken sob, on a pale wrist in sharp black ink,

"Don't leave me"

Red rimmed eyes widening she glanced down at her own wrist.

"I love you"

The words hit her harder than a punch. Finally she looked down already knowing who's pale face she would see.

When Marinette was sixteen she lost her soulmate.


End file.
